Fire vs. Fire
Alfred awoke to Arthur nagging at him, the older boy already up and dressed and bustling noisily about the room. Alfred groaned and rolled over in the scratchy sheets of the hostel bed.
"There's no point getting up. This place is so boring," he whined, caring very little for how childish he sounded. "When is your stupid contest over so we can get out of here and find a real town? You know, one with a Gym and shit."
"Well, excuse me for having other interests than battling all the time," Arthur bit back. "You know, there's nothing wrong with teaching your Pokémon some more well-rounded skills and showing them off to people. If you hadn't noticed, these contests are a pretty big deal to a pretty large number of people." Alfred mumbled something unintelligible and sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Until Arthur added "Just because you can't teach your Pokémon shit apart from attack moves."
Alfred let his hands fall from his face to scowl darkly at his old friend. "Oh, that's it!" he exclaimed. "If you think I'm coming with you today now, you've got another thing coming."
"Fine! I don't want you to come anyway!" Arthur snapped, rounding on him with his hands on his hips in a very near imitation of Alfred's mother. "All you do is complain. I try to enjoy myself and get better at something without you, and you whine until the experience is totally ruined for me!"
Alfred couldn't help but feel a twinge of hurt at Arthur's words, at being accused of acting like a baby and a killjoy. If anything, Arthur was the killjoy!
But strangely, it was the stab of guilt and worry in his chest that Alfred noticed more – had he really ruined Arthur's fun like that? He didn't want that. What if…what if Arthur decided they should split up and go their own ways?
Alfred closed his eyes and tried to physically shake the thought from his head. As if Arthur would ever do that! He would be lost without Alfred leading the way on their Pokémon journey. And besides, it's not like Alfred even cared whether they split up or not…
As if to prove to himself that he didn't care, and that Arthur would never have the guts to ditch him anyway, Alfred got angry again.
"Perfect! If that's how it is, then you don't need me there! I'm not coming."
"Fine!"
"Fine."
"Um…guys…"
Arthur and Alfred looked over to Matthew, who was standing beside his perfectly made bed and neatly packed bag. "I don't mean to interrupt," he said, gently, as always. "But it's nearly time to go." He glanced at the clock, making Arthur do the same. The elder boy jumped, shouting about being late, and began rushing around trying to collect his last few necessities for the contest.
Soon, he was slinging his satchel over his shoulder and racing out the door without even a goodbye to the blonde teenager still sitting in bed. Matthew cast his twin a sorry glance as he left to follow Arthur to the contest.
"I know that…you and Arthur have your differences," he said from the doorway. Alfred quickly looked away and glared at the carpet, trying to shut out the lecture he knew was coming. "But…are they really that important? It's nothing that should push you apart. You know he doesn't care about becoming a Pokemon master as much as you – he just wanted to be there with us, to help you and watch you enjoy your journey. And now he's found something that he likes, and is pretty good at, can't you try to do the same for him?"
Matthew closed the door softly behind him, leaving Alfred to steam in his thoughts.
Well, he wasn't getting back to sleep now…
He got up sluggishly, making a big show to nobody in particular of dragging his feet around, pulling on clothing and stuffing essentials into his bag. He tried to ignore Matthew's words, and Arthur's, and the ones his brain was trying to form about the whole situation, and just focused on getting out of the Pokémon Centre to go and find some proper fun for the day.
Well, it was official: Ginger Town was the lamest town of all time.
There was no PokeMart. Anything that Alfred might have found even remotely useful (if he hadn't seen it all before) was relegated to a tiny corner of a tiny store in a backstreet. There was no Gym, no training academy, no local expert of any kind. No popular battle spots tucked away down side streets or in parks. It was like they didn't even know Pokémon battling existed.
Contests, on the other hand, seemed to be a big deal here. The shops, the notice boards, the street decorations, and even windows of people's houses – all loudly declaring the town's love of Pokémon contests.
Lame.
He guessed it made sense, since Ginger Town was mostly known for its big, famous contest hall in the heart of town. But still, Alfred didn't understand how or why the whole town could get so hyped up over something so stupid, even if they did happen to have a contest hall there. If he'd grown up here, he would still know that Pokémon battles were the real way to go.
When he honestly couldn't stand the boredom anymore, Alfred finally stopped avoiding it and headed over to check out the Contest Hall. Not that he actually cared or anything, there just wasn't anything else to do.
There was a huge plaza surrounding the glass dome of the hall, with dozens of people milling around outside to watch the contest on large outdoor screens. Families were picnicking on the grass, groups of friends standing around chatting, teenagers hanging out on the edge of the fountain in the plaza – everyone making a day of it as they watched and commented excitedly at the action unfolding on the screens, showing the events taking place inside.
Alfred decided he might as well stop for lunch.
He plumped himself down on a patch of grass with a good view of one of the screens. It was just because there was no TV at the Pokémon Centre, he told himself. He hadn't watched TV in ages, in fact, and this would have to do. It wasn't like he was actually interested in the Pokémon Contest.
And he only stayed after he'd finished eating because he didn't have anywhere else to go, anyway. And if he was going to have to find somewhere to sit and be bored all day it might as well be here: the location wasn't so bad – with the blue sky overhead, warm early summer air, sun reflecting off the glass dome of the hall and making it shine, and everyone around him having so much fun.
Alfred watched the co-ordinators compete on the screen, one after another.
Most of them were a joke, their Pokémon primped like dolls or covered in ridiculous accessories. I mean, how had that one guy made his Weezing look fluffy? And more importantly, why?!
And the "talent contest" – oh, don't get him started! It had to go in quotation marks it was so questionable. What was this, a circus? Who were these co-ordinators meant to be torturing more: the viewers or the Pokémon? Gravellers should not be made to dance like that, and why was that Mudkip spinning plates? Just why?!
Alfred scoffed and scowled his way through most of the contestants.
But then there were some…some who just managed to catch his attention and made him raise his eye in interest for a moment.
These co-ordinators didn't choose to fluff up their Pokémon or make them dance and do ridiculous tricks. That was only what the obviously talentless Trainers did to try to win over the judges, because they had little imagination and no skills to really pull off something impressive.
The real co-ordinators managed to show off their Pokémon's abilities in a way that, Alfred had to admit, you didn't really get to appreciate in battles.
I mean, he knew that his Pokémon were awesome, both in and out of battle. Sure they were strong in fights, and everyone got to see that. But they were also fun, smart, skilled, friendly – something which only Alfred and his travelling companions ever really got to see. He was so proud to call his Pokémon his team, and he wished that he could show other people how cool they were, too. Battling had always seemed like the best way to do that.
But what he was seeing now was a bit of an eye-opener. These co-ordinators had found ways to show off their Pokémon's personalities and uniqueness to the world without having to battle. They weren't exactly showing how strong they were, but you got to see how impressive the Pokémon was as an individual, and how the strong connection was between the creature and its Trainer.
Don't get him wrong, Alfred loved battling the most. But he was certainly beginning to see why Arthur might enjoy the contests. Arthur loved all this shit: being creative, artistic, innovative and unique. And he loved his Pokémon, so getting them involved in showing this stuff off was only natural.
He'd watched his friend in a couple of others of the months since Arthur had been encouraged to enter his first one. But they had been pretty amateur, and Alfred had never been able to understand the appeal. This famous Contest Hall, with a bigger number of co-ordinators at a much higher ability, was helping him understand what Arthur kept going on about, though.
And speak of the devil!
Alfred jumped in surprise when an announcer blared: "And next up is Arthur Kirkland, the newbie who is taking the contest world by something of a storm."
'Something of a storm?' What?!
The announcers were on screen, a pretty blonde woman and a pretty brunette man sitting at a desk. "Arthur comes all the way from Mount Ivory, can you believe it!" said the woman, and her co-host nodded.
"That's correct, Sarah, he lives right up by the Pokémon League itself. Must be exciting – although he tells us he's not allowed to go inside and watch the Elite Four battles!"
"Oh, that's a shame. Well, we'll be catching up with Arthur afterwards, but for now let's take a look. Arthur is entering today's contest with his fabulous Vulpix, Charmer."
And there was Arthur. Alfred's mouth went dry all of a sudden. Because it was a warm day, obviously. And then the air must have gone down the wrong way when he breathed in because he did a weird gulp. And his heart beating faster was...just for no reason. He was just excited for Arthur to win the contest, obviously – not because he was noticing for the first time that Arthur was actually pretty attractive looking. If you were into…attractive people… Come on, did Arthur really look like that all the time or they had done something to him back stage with make-up or something? Was the TV airbrushed? Alfred was confused. And he was suddenly very annoyed by all the girls in the open plaza whistling and cheering and giggling to each other when Arthur came on screen.
Charmer the Vulpix, aptly named, posed in front of the cameras, fluttering her eyelashes right at them until her time began.
First she showed off some moves – letting forth a brilliant flamethrower that curled into shapes in the air, the flames flickering to make the designs look alive. The Vulpix waved her head elegantly, the stream of fire falling to earth and creating a twisted tunnel which she run through without a single hair singed.
The camera went to a close up of Arthur was giving her some commands and Alfred resolutely ignored the way his heart leapt.
Next, Charmer let off a smokescreen, which somehow created a perfect ball in the centre of the arena. She leapt inside, hidden from the crowd. Lights began flashing inside the dark cloud, creating beautiful patterns across the wall of smoke, and Alfred realised it was little bursts of fire the Vulpix was giving off. Charmer's shadow could be seen inside when the lights when off, creating an eerie image of the Pokémon moving around inside.
"Oh, that was beautiful!" the lady host exclaimed off screen as the round finished and Charmer ran over to Arthur to be hugged close. "Did you notice how Charmer's flamethrower left off absolutely no smoke?"
"Yes, it was perfectly executed," the male co-host added. "And that smokescreen! A perfect ball! I've never seen anyone use it as an actual screen before, to project light and images like that."
"Beautiful, truly stunning."
"Stunning…" Alfred repeated slowly, his mouth hung open and the word fell from it unintentionally as he watched the close-up of Arthur. He was kneeling on the floor, smiling down at his Pokémon and stroking her beautiful red fur. He glanced up in the direction of the camera, only to blush when he saw it pointed right at him. He gave it a nervous smile and twitched the tips of his fingers in an embarrassed little wave to the viewers and Alfred had never wanted anything more than to grab him and just hold him tight.
Just to keep him safe from all these girls cooing over him in the audience, obviously. How dare they even look at him! They would never have noticed Arthur if he weren't suddenly famous or whatever. Alfred had noticed him all along!
Well, maybe not in the way he was suddenly noticing him now…
Did that mean they were right and he was wrong? Was it bad that he'd only started looking at Arthur like this after he'd been on TV? Would Arthur prefer the attention of these girls who liked him immediately, even though they didn't know him like Alfred did?
Um, not that Alfred was looking at Arthur exactly like the girls were! It wasn't like he like liked Arthur the way they obviously did – he was just suddenly starting to appreciate that he was a good co-ordinator and was impressed by him.
Yeah, these girls were wrong. They were shallow: they only liked Arthur because he was cute, they didn't care about his co-ordinator skills.
Did he say cute? He meant…some other adjective he couldn't think of because Charmer had finished her next two rounds and Arthur was back on screen and it was kind of hard to think right now. Because Alfred was paying so much attention. To the scores and stuff. Not to the close-up of his childhood friend smiling and waving.
An hour later and the contest came to end.
Naturally, Arthur won.
And Alfred was waiting for him outside the Contest Hall with a bouquet of red roses. Just because they were the first flowers he could find, not because they were Arthur's favourite. If they even were his favourite – Alfred didn't even know. Or care.
Oh, and he only bought flowers just because Arthur liked flowers. No other reason. He would have got him, like, a Master Potion or something but this stupid town didn't have any. He hoped Arthur wouldn't mind.
(And he hoped that the stupid fangirls milling around would see all this, get the picture, and leave his Arthur alone.)
A/N:
Written for the Olympics over on the USxUK LiveJournal Community. (You guys have to understand by now that my life revolves around that comm's events...)
A lot of people seemed really interested in this little fic, and I actually DO have a whole story planned out for this AU. So if you're interested in reading more, please leave me a note in a review and I'll see if it's worth continuing.
If I DO continue, this one-shot will not be included. Alfred would never admit to his feelings so easily; I will be drawing out that sexual tension 5ever. But the fic would be similar to this in style and characterisation, so this is a mini-example of what to expect if I decide to write more.